Lamp Post Accident

Accident  -  Queensberry House, Canongate

December 26, 1946

Fallen Lamp Post Accident  -  Where and When?

©  Scotsman Publications Ltd, (Scotsman Ref 0683)with acknowledgement to Edinburgh City Archives for allowing me to reproduce
this photo from their 'Edinburgh Street Lighting Unit' collection.
 Please note restrictions on use of this photo.

 

Enlarge this Photo

    Fallen Lamp Post Accident  - Outside Queensberry House, Canongate  -   December 26, 1946 ©

 

Question

Where and When?

In April 2009, I added a photograph of a 'lorry and lamp post accident' to the Edinphoto web site, asking where and when the accident might have occurred.

This was the photo:

    Fallen Lamp Post Accident  -  Where and When? ©

 

Answers

Outside Queensberry House  - 

64 Canongate

It is not obvious, from this photo, what caused the lamp post to fall.

Accident outside Queensberry House, Canongate on December 26, 1946 ©

However, the location and the date of the accident are now clear.  The accident happened at the gates to Queensberry House on the south side  of Canongate, Edinburgh

The St Cuthbert's building, in the upper-right corner of this photo, has since been demolished.

Queensberry House, in the upper left corner still exists.  It has now been refurbished and has become part of The Scottish Parliament.  New gates have been installed.

December 26, 1946

This photo was published in the Edinburgh newspaper, Evening Dispatch.  The date written on the back of this photo is December 26, 1946.

 

Further Questions

Lamp Post

On looking more closely at the lamp post in the two old photos, I was interested to see the sign on the lamp post, in the lower right corner of the first photo below.  This sign seems to have been removed by the time that the second photo below was taken.

Fallen Lamp Post Accident  -  Where and When? ©      Accident outside Queensberry House, Canongate on December 26, 1946 ©

The sign reads:

PLEASE DO NOT

SPIT

ON THE PAVEMENT

 

Questions

1. Was this a common sign on lamp posts in the centre of Edinburgh in the 1940s?

2.  Were there also other signs carrying different messages?

Peter Stubbs, Edinburgh:  January 9, 2011

 

Street Lighting

Lorry and Van Accidents

Edinburgh Transport

 

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